About
About Raghu Vamsi Kadiri
Raghu Vamsi Kadiri (Kadiri Raghu Vamsi), known as Raghu, is a Hyderabad-based Indian social entrepreneur. Raised in army cantonments, he registered Marpu Foundation at 18, leads it as Founder and CEO, created OurVolunteer.com and originated the Volunteer-First CSR framework.
At a glance
The short version, for anyone writing an introduction, a citation or a nomination.
| Full name | Raghu Vamsi Kadiri |
| Goes by | Raghu |
| In Telugu order | Kadiri Raghu Vamsi (కదిరి రఘు వంశీ) |
| Pronounced | As written: RAH-goo VUM-see KUH-dee-ree |
| Based in | Hyderabad, Telangana, India |
| Grew up | Indian Army cantonments across India |
| Roles | Founder and CEO, Marpu Foundation, a registered nonprofit organization in India. Founder, OurVolunteer.com. Other ventures |
| Known for | Originating Volunteer-First CSR and building a volunteer-led network across 23+ states |
| Works as | Speaker, event host, workshop facilitator, CSR, ESG and nonprofit advisor and policy advisor |
| Education | Law: National Law University Delhi Bachelor’s degree: Loyola, Hyderabad University: Osmania University Learning affiliations: Stanford, Harvard, Oxford and WWF |
| Networks | World Economic Forum Global Shapers Community, Hyderabad Hub. American Express Leadership Academy. Kincentric Leadership. All programmes |
| Languages | English, Telugu and Hindi |
| Travels | All seven continents, 25+ countries and territories. The map |
| Published work | How to Start an NGO in India (book). Volunteer-First CSR and SDG localisation (SSRN working paper, 2026). Research briefs |
| Recognition | Karmaveer Chakra (2019). Sankalp Tara Award, received by Marpu Foundation (2021). Global Shaper, World Economic Forum (2022). Finalist, Leader in Volunteer Engagement, iVolunteer Awards (2024). Champions of Impactful CSR Leader (2025). The full record |
| Online | raghu4change on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and X |
| Contact | hi@kadiriraghuvamsi.com, WhatsApp |
Early life
Where it started
The years no camera caught, drawn instead.
Early years
Raised across army cantonments
His father served in the Indian Army. Childhood meant a new cantonment, a new school and new friends every few years, in communities that ran on discipline and service.
Age 14
Hyderabad, and a rule from home
The family settled in Hyderabad. The green campuses were gone, and his father’s answer to every complaint became his own: if you do not like something, change it.
2018, at 17
The Kerala floods
Relief work during the floods made one thing plain: people want to help, and what they lack is a structure that lets them help well, again and again.
2019, at 18
Marpu Foundation
On 6 July 2019 he registered Marpu Foundation in Telangana. Marpu is Telugu for change, and volunteers were its delivery system from day one.
The story
A rule from home, taken literally
Raghu grew up on the move. His father served in the Indian Army, so childhood meant a new cantonment, a new school and a new set of friends every few years, inside communities that ran on discipline, routine and service.
When Raghu was 14, his father retired and the family settled in Hyderabad. The green, ordered campuses he had grown up in were gone, and he said so, often. His father’s answer never changed: “If you do not like something, change it.”
He took that literally. At 17 he joined relief work during the Kerala floods of 2018, one of several experiences that made the goal clear: people want to help, and what they lack is a structure that lets them help well, again and again. At 18, on 6 July 2019, he registered Marpu Foundation in Telangana. Marpu is Telugu for change.
Marpu was built around volunteers from the first day, with roles, training and follow-through, and without foreign funding. During the pandemic its student volunteers served over 16,000 meals in Hyderabad. Companies noticed. Today Marpu Foundation, a registered nonprofit organization in India, works with a community of more than a million volunteers and 250+ partner companies across 23+ states: lake rejuvenation and Miyawaki forests, school revamps and libraries, newborn care in government hospitals, health camps, livelihoods, bus shelters and solar power for public buildings.
The explorer years
Learning on the road
Alongside Marpu, Raghu kept going back to school, often without a classroom. Four years with the Oasis Movement on the philosophy, art and science of living, loving and learning. A Gramya Manthan rural immersion with Youth Alliance. Retreats with Moved by Love. Farm work in Himalayan villages with the Pagdandi Collective. Youth jams, Vipassana, wildlife camps with fellow cohorts, and long stretches of solo backpacking through places few guidebooks cover.
The circle kept widening: the Kalinga Fellowship, UNESCO World Heritage volunteering and photography, an international leadership programme in Italy and work with the United Nations in Laos, where he learned that the country keeps an eighteenth Sustainable Development Goal of its own: lives safe from unexploded ordnance.
He is a Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum’s Hyderabad Hub, part of the American Express Leadership Academy and a Kincentric Leadership alumnus. He studied law at National Law University Delhi, earned his bachelor’s degree at Loyola, Hyderabad, through Osmania University, and keeps learning affiliations with Stanford, Harvard, Oxford and WWF. His travels now span all seven continents.
The work today
The method gets a name
Along the way the method got a name. Raghu calls it Volunteer-First CSR: an approach in which trained, organised volunteers are the main delivery system of a CSR programme, and the budget pays for what volunteers cannot do. He examined it in a 2026 working paper on SSRN, which introduces the Volunteer-First Impact Model (VFIM).
For companies that want their own people involved, he created OurVolunteer.com, which plans and runs employee volunteering programmes end to end. For first-time founders, he wrote How to Start an NGO in India, a step-by-step guide drawn from Marpu’s early years.
Today Raghu speaks, hosts, trains and advises: CSR teams and boards, colleges and student leaders, governments and public representatives, and international forums. He has written CSR and ESG policies with partner companies, led tracks as a facilitator at youth summits and sits on award juries. He also writes almost every day, about CSR, NGOs, careers with purpose and India in 2026. Read the longer story of Marpu Foundation.
If you do not like something, change it.
His father’s advice
Milestones
From an army childhood to a national volunteer network.
Early years
Raised across army cantonments
His father served in the Indian Army, so childhood meant new cantonments, new schools and new friends every few years, inside communities that ran on discipline and service.
Age 14
Hyderabad, and a rule from home
His father retires and the family settles in Hyderabad. The green campuses are gone, and his father’s answer to every complaint becomes his own: if you do not like something, change it.
2018
Kerala, at seventeen
Relief work during the Kerala floods is one of several experiences that make the goal clear: people want to help, and they need structure to help well.
2019
Marpu Foundation is registered
At 18, on 6 July 2019, Raghu registers Marpu Foundation in Telangana, a nonprofit organization built around volunteers. Marpu is Telugu for change. The same year he receives the Karmaveer Chakra and an individual project grant from the United States Department of State.
2020
Relief at scale
During the pandemic, Marpu’s student volunteers serve over 16,000 meals and carry dry rations to more than 3,000 families in Hyderabad, as reported by The Hans India.
2021
Sankalp Tara Award
Honoured at Ravindra Bharathi, Hyderabad, for youth-led social impact.
2022
Global Shaper, and on television
Raghu joins the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community in Hyderabad, Marpu is named NGO of the Year, Empowering Environment, in Bengaluru, and PMC English features him on Social Heroes.
2023
Learning in cohorts
A Kincentric Leadership cohort of 80 leaders, and Marpu ranked fifth in India on India Philanthropy Day.
2024
A book, a finalist and the United Nations
Raghu publishes How to Start an NGO in India, is a finalist for Leader in Volunteer Engagement at the iVolunteer Awards, is recognised at the WORK Telangana Chapter’s Samman Samaroh and works with the United Nations in Laos.
2025
Recognition for CSR leadership
Excellence in Water Conservation at CASCA 2025 and Champions of Impactful CSR Leader by ET Edge, both in New Delhi; Marpu’s bus shelter at Bolarum makes the Telugu papers and TV news; an international leadership cohort in Italy.
2026
The model gets a name
Raghu sets out Volunteer-First CSR in a working paper on SSRN, joins the Forbes Nonprofit Council and the American Express Leadership Academy, which meets in Tokyo, and keeps writing almost every day.
In the press
What newspapers have written about the work, in their words.
The core team of Marpu, numbering five, are all under 25 but have already impacted the lives of around 10,000.
The Hans India, October 2020
So far, they have served over 16,000 meals and also distributed dry rations to more than 3,000 needy families.
The Hans India, June 2020, on Marpu’s pandemic relief
Marpu Foundation is a volunteer-driven NGO focused on building a better world through everyday people power.
Deccan Chronicle, World NGO Day, February 2026
What he works on
CSR that works
Section 135 programmes designed around trained volunteers, measured honestly, and renewed because they deliver.
Volunteers who stay
Recruitment, training, recognition and retention for networks from fifty to a million people.
Building NGOs that last
Choosing a legal form, registrations, compliance and getting CSR-ready.
The SDGs, locally
Turning global goals into district-level work that communities own.
CSR and ESG policy
Writing CSR and ESG policies that boards can approve and teams can actually run.
Careers with purpose
Honest guidance for students and young professionals who want to work on social problems.
Find Raghu online
These are his official profiles. Anything else using his name is not run by him.
About Raghu, briefly
Straight answers to the questions people search for.
Who is Raghu Vamsi Kadiri?
Raghu Vamsi Kadiri (also written Kadiri Raghu Vamsi, and known as Raghu) is a Hyderabad-based Indian social entrepreneur. He registered Marpu Foundation in 2019 at the age of 18 and leads it as Founder and CEO. Marpu Foundation is a registered nonprofit organization in India. He created OurVolunteer.com for employee volunteering and originated Volunteer-First CSR, a model in which trained volunteer networks deliver corporate social responsibility programmes.
Are Kadiri Raghu Vamsi and Raghu Vamsi Kadiri the same person?
Yes. Kadiri is the family name. Telugu usage puts it first (Kadiri Raghu Vamsi, కదిరి రఘు వంశీ); international usage puts it last (Raghu Vamsi Kadiri). Some newspapers have written K Raghu Vamshi, and event screens often say Raghu Vamsi K. He goes by Raghu.
How do you pronounce his name?
Just as it is written in English: RAH-goo VUM-see KUH-dee-ree. Raghu is enough in conversation.
Where did he grow up?
In Indian Army cantonments across the country, because his father served in the Army. The family settled in Hyderabad when Raghu was 14, after his father retired.
How old was he when he started Marpu Foundation?
Eighteen. Marpu Foundation was registered in Telangana on 6 July 2019.
What did he study?
Law at National Law University Delhi, and a bachelor’s degree at Loyola, Hyderabad, through Osmania University. He holds learning affiliations with Stanford, Harvard, Oxford and WWF.
Where has he travelled?
Across all seven continents and more than 25 countries and territories, from Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Taiwan to Italy, the United Kingdom, Namibia, Mauritius, Greenland, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. The journeys page has the full map.
Which fellowships and programmes has he been part of?
Among others: the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community (Hyderabad Hub), the American Express Leadership Academy, a Kincentric Leadership cohort, the Kalinga Fellowship, the WYSE International Leadership Programme in Italy, UNESCO World Heritage volunteering, Youth Alliance’s Gramya Manthan, four years with the Oasis Movement, Moved by Love retreats, farm learning with the Pagdandi Collective and many youth jams and retreats. See fellowships and programmes.
Where is he based?
Hyderabad, Telangana. Marpu Foundation runs programmes in 23+ states, and Raghu speaks and advises across India and internationally, in person or online.
Is he connected to the Raghu Vamsi Group?
No. The Raghu Vamsi Group is a Hyderabad aerospace and precision engineering company and is unrelated. Raghu Vamsi Kadiri is a social entrepreneur and the founder of Marpu Foundation.
What does Marpu mean?
Marpu (మార్పు) is the Telugu word for change.
How do I contact him?
Write to hi@kadiriraghuvamsi.com or message him on WhatsApp. For CSR partnerships with Marpu Foundation, go to marpu.org.
Most of my work starts with a conversation: a CSR head with a budget and a question, a college with a stage, a founder with an idea and no paperwork yet.
Tell me the date, the audience and what you want people to walk away with, and I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person for it.
Raghu